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Vol. 26:1 ISSN 0160-8460 March 1998
Preserving Copper Country's Mining Records
The Michigan Technological University Archives and Copper Country Historical Collection maintains a variety of manuscript materials on the people, towns, companies, and social organizations of Michigan's Copper Country, particularly relating to the boom era that ran from the 1870s through the 1920s. Among these are the records of the Quincy Mining Company and the Calumet and Hecla Mining Companies. Both of these collections were processed and made available to researchers with the assistance of NHPRC Grant No. 94-097. The records processed by the project were drawn from a number of accessions to the university archives between 1970 and 1997 by several companies and individuals.
The Quincy Mining Company was founded in 1846 to mine native copper deposits on property near Hancock, Michigan. During the next 125 years, the company produced 1.5 billion pounds of refined copper and issued $30 million in shareholder dividends. Its ability to consistently produce both copper and stock dividends garnered it the nickname "Old Reliable" and spread its fame throughut the mining world. Although the company was one of a limited number of mining ventures in Michigan's Keweenaw copper district to generate substantial profits, its operations can be considered representative of many of the smaller, less successful companies that dotted the Copper Country between 1845 and 1970.
A returning veteran reports for work in the mines.
While never as large as the Calumet and Hecla Mining Companies, Quincy succeeded in adapting to the many technological changes that characterized the industry during the company's history. The greatest historical significance of Quincy lies in its long-term success in an industry marked by hundreds of failed endeavors. Quincy prospered while companies of the same relative size disappeared. Because of its excellent management, Quincy survived great fluctuations in the copper market and emerged by the late 19th century as a major player in the nation's copper industry, second only to Calumet and Hecla.
The Quincy Mining Company Collection documents the development of the company from its beginnings in 1846 through the cessation of underground mining in 1931 and the sale of its Michigan properties in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection contains very detailed records of all aspects of a copper mining company operating in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, including information about the buildings, sites, and communities created to mine and treat the copper ore, and provides surprisingly comprehensive coverage of the workforce employed by the company.
The Quincy Mining Company Collection, which totals 375 cubic feet and covers the period 1848-1988, includes eight record series: Corporate Records, 1848-1970s; Correspondence, 1872-1986; Financial Records, 1852-1988; Operational Records, 1860-1971; Related Companies' Records, 1859-1988; Employment and Medical Records, 1851-1988; Property, Dwelling, and Rent Records, 1859-1988; and Municipal Records, 1867-1978.
The Calumet and Helca Consolidated Copper Company, which traces its founding to 1864, was the most successful corporation to have mined native copper on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Through nearly a century of mining activity, the company produced in excess of 4.5 billion pounds of refined copper and issued over $200 million in shareholder dividends. Unlike many of its competitors along the Keweenaw Peninsula, Calumet and Hecla successfully expanded its operations over several separate mineral bodies, developed capital-intensive ancillary industrial facilities, explored diversified non-mining enterprises, and remained a significant mining corporation at the national and international levels well past the district's most productive era. Not only did the company control the workings of the mines, it also exercised control over community development and the lives of the workers' families. Calumet and Hecla was known, however, as the fairest and most enlightened employer in the American copper industry.
After military service in World War II, this Calumet and Hecla miner again takes up his career in copper extraction.
Most early Michigan copper mining ventures exploited fissure and mass deposits of native copper, mainly in Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties. Exploitation of the larger amygdaloid and conglomerate deposits, near what are now the communities of Hancock and Calumet, was delayed due to the larger capital investments required to profitably mine these lower grade ore bodies, the copper in which was more finely disseminated throughout the rock. Edwin J. Hulbert identified several promising properties while surveying a state road through the Calumet area in the mid-1850s. He proceeded to purchase several tracts of land from the St. Mary's Mineral Land Company and began to explore the property's mineral wealth, shipping samples to the East Coast in hopes of attracting investors. Several Boston-based investors showed interest, and two new mining companies, the Calumet Mining Company and the Hecla Mining Company, were organized in September 1864 to mine the promising ore deposits. Through the purchase of additional lands, the two companies controlled the larger portion of the Calumet conglomerate, the richest copper ore body in the district. Hulbert was unable to manage the mine site, however, and the jointly owned companies sent Alexander Agassiz to replace him in 1866. Agassiz resolved several problems, and the two companies paid their first dividends in 1869/1870. Changes in state law made it possible to merge the two companies in 1870, and the combined company's assets gave it a commanding position in the industry.
Calumet and Hecla invested tremendous amounts of capital in its Michigan operations. Underground workings extended for several miles along the Calumet conglomerate and the Kearsarge amygdaloid, with shaft houses, rockbreaking facilities, and steam-powered machinery in place at the surface. Milling facilities, as well as foundries, saw mills, smelting facilities, and rail and ship transport departments, provided complete control of the copper-making process. Company employment peaked at over 6,000 in 1917. The company provided houses, farms, parks, bath houses, a library, and community buildings to its workers, and had significant involvement with local schools, churches, and municipalities.
The Calumet and Hecla Mining Companies Collection, which totals 596 cubic feet and covers the period 1855-1988, includes 12 record series: Calumet Mining Co. Records, 1864-1871; Hecla Mining Co. Records, 1864-1871; Calumet and Hecla Corporate Records, 1871-1969; Administrative Records, 1866-1970; Financial/Legal Records, 1866-1972; Departmental Records, 1858-1969; Divisional Records, 1902-1968; Subsidiary and Related Companies, 1855-1972; Operational Records, 1864-1973; Workforce Records, 1870-1971; Property Records, 1864-1972; and Community Records, 1869-1969.
We wish to thank Erik Nordberg, University Archivist at Michigan Technological University, for providing the photographs that accompany this article, the text of which was drawn from the guide to the collections.
Shaft houses of the Baltic Mine near Houghton, Michigan, ca. 1910.
